1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates in general to kitchen utensils, and more specifically to a corralling utensil with an associated cutting board in which the corralling utensil may be removably stored. The corralling utensil is used to quickly, easily and accurately gather and move food or other items around and off the cutting board or other surface.
2. Prior Art
After cutting food into smaller pieces on a cutting board, the cut food is typically moved around and off of the board into a container, such as a cooking pot, storage container, or dish. Often a kitchen knife is used to move the food. However, as a pile of cut food is pushed with the blade, pieces of food dissipate along the flat blade instead of staying in a complete pile. Additionally, blade edges are typically curved, making it unsuitable for effective scraping of a flat cutting board, necessitating multiple scraping movements in multiple directions to effectively move cut food with the knife, with some of the food ending up where it is not desired, for example on a table, countertop, stove, and floor, resulting in wasted food, time, and effort.
There are several products that address this problem. Some are scoops that carry cut food to a container, for example U.S. Pat. No. 6,733,056, to Daniele. However, they require the user to scrape food into the device, and often require scraping of the inside of the scoop to remove food remnants stuck inside it. A similar product is the Crumb Scraper, which waiters use to remove crumbs from tables. It is vertically concave, and horizontally straight, therefore it would not work well if used to remove cut food from a cutting board, since the food would likely dissipate along and off the length of the product instead of gathering into a pile for efficient moving. Japanese patent publication JP2006130278 to Shunichi describes a squeegee that is attached to a kitchen knife to move cut vegetables. Unfortunately, this device must be attached to the kitchen knife before use, it may fall off the knife during use, and it will likely get in the way of cutting food.
Other products attempt to solve the problem by creating an area on or within a cutting board for funneling cut food into a container, by providing walls around the board or providing means for folding the board. An example of the former is U.S. Pat. No. 4,446,051 to Price. An example of the latter is U.S. Pat. No. 5,203,548 to Sanders. Unfortunately, not all of the cut food on these boards will fall off the board by the force of gravity only; the remainder still needs to be removed from the board, which may be difficult to do with these designs. In the case of walls surrounding the surface of a board, as in Price, the blade of a large kitchen knife may not fit within the area between the walls. In the case of folding boards, such as Sanders, it may be difficult for the user to hold the board unfolded with only one hand, while the other scrapes the board with the edge of their knife blade. Either way, a knife may be necessary to complete the process, with the resulting problems mentioned above.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. D440,462 to Paschal, et al, shows a cutting board with what appears to be a sliding food pusher and removable measuring cup. It appears to work by the user pushing forward on the sliding food pusher to move cut food along the board into the measuring cup, which is pulled out for use. There are several drawbacks to this design. First, several things could cause the pusher to bind and not slide smoothly: Food may get caught between the pusher and the board during use, the board may shrink, expand, warp, or twist over time, and the user may not push forward evenly on the middle of the pusher. Further, only the top side of the board can be used for cutting, and any food that ends up in the grooves will not be pushed off the board. Additionally, the user may need to put their fingers at the front of the sliding pusher in order to grasp it, thereby contacting the food being pushed. Also, because the pusher can only move straight forward, the user must push food off the board at the front end of the board only, but some users prefer to push food off the sides of their boards. Another disadvantage of the pusher being confined to a straight path is that it does not provide means for the user to control the movement of food; if there is a large pile of food on the board, some of it may inadvertently dissipate along the length of the pusher and fall off the sides of the board as the pusher is slid forward, since the pusher cannot be rotated to focus the cut food into a container. Finally, the user does not have the option of moving only part of a pile of food, or only one pile when there is more than one on the board.
3. Objects and Advantages
Accordingly, several objects and advantages of the present invention are:                (a) to provide a corralling utensil that facilitates faster, easier, and cleaner food preparation by providing means for more efficient and accurate gathering and moving of cut food around and off a cutting board or other surface, helping to prevent food from inadvertently falling off the board, and providing means for getting food into a small container by allowing the user to rotate the corralling utensil to more accurately focus the food;        (b) to provide a corralling utensil that allows the user to push food off any part of a cutting board, allows them to move part of a pile of food or a single pile when more than one is on the board, and helps keep their hands and fingers clean;        (c) to provide a cutting board with means for removably storing the corralling utensil, whereby fast and convenient access to the corralling utensil during food preparation is provided, the utensil is less likely to get lost or misplaced, and users can maintain their present cutting method and style.        
Further objects and advantages will become apparent from a consideration of the ensuing description and drawings.